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Drew Allen's bond with special-needs brother instilled patience to handle role as backup

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Drew Allen learned valuable lesson from his brother Collins, who has Down syndrome. Their bond helps Allen put things in perspective when plays on the field don't go his way.
(Courtesy of the Allen family)

Syracuse, N.Y. — On Saturday afternoon shortly after lunchtime, Drew Allen will set foot on the field that was nearly his. He will look around at the fans in the stands, the ones in red and white and screaming for a North Carolina State victory, and face the team he could have chosen inside the venue he might have electrified.

Back in the spring, Allen took a visit to N.C. State after announcing his decision to transfer from Oklahoma. He went to dinner with Dave Doeren and the coaches, caught a glimpse of Carter-Finley Stadium, felt the warmth of the "football aura" of Raleigh, N.C.

Fast forward six months and Allen will arrive at Carter-Finley on Saturday as a member of Syracuse, the visiting team playing its first road game in the Atlantic Coast Conference. After a re-recruiting process that came down to the Wolfpack and the Orange, Allen chose Central New York because of his connection with the coaching staff and realistic opportunity to win the quarterback spot left vacant by Ryan Nassib. He loved both schools and both programs; he could have chosen and enrolled at either.

But seven interceptions later and Allen will be on the sidelines watching. He is the starting quarterback for neither.

Relegated again to the role of a backup, Allen is mired in the very situation he eventually escaped at Oklahoma. Terrel Hunt has lassoed the starting job that most everyone thought would belong to Allen, leaving the fifth-year senior exercising supreme patience for the fifth consecutive year.

It's a trait he harnessed while growing up alongside his brother, Collins, who has Down syndrome.

***

The clock showed 9:31 remaining and a 28-point deficit for Syracuse when Allen took the field in the fourth quarter against Clemson. With Hunt at the top of the depth chart, Allen's playing time is now governed by injury or score of the game, and against the third-ranked Tigers a lopsided margin allowed him to see the field in garbage time.

He completed his first three passes, and on his second drive he guided Syracuse from its own 25-yard line all the way inside the Clemson 5. Then he rolled left on fourth-and-2, fired a pass toward the end zone and watched in disgust as it was tipped then intercepted.

Furious, Allen screamed and clenched his fists along the left sideline. Though brief, his stint against Clemson defined his season: flashes of ability nullified by one fateful throw.
He was still fuming as he left the locker room after the game, vitriol oozing out of his pores and through the seams of his suit and tie. But then he saw Collins.

"It didn't decide the game, but I'm beating myself up. I'm so upset," Allen said. "So I come out of the locker room and my parents and my brother are there. And it's like nothing else matters once I see him. He's just that influential in my life."

Drew Allen won the starting job after preseason camp but struggled through the first two-plus games. He was replaced by Terrel Hunt after week three. Dick Blume | dblume@syracuse.com

Collins, 27, has a unique place in Allen's life that simultaneously mixes affection and aggravation with devotion and delight. Seated alongside his parents Andy and Julie, Collins never misses one of his brother's games.

He is there to support the brother that he loves, and whether that brother threw five interceptions or five touchdowns is less important than the bond they share.

In forging that bond while growing up in San Antonio, Allen developed the heightened sense of patience needed to endure five seasons as a backup quarterback. He sat behind Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford and his successor Landry Jones at Oklahoma. Now he is sitting behind Hunt after losing the job with three turnover-filled and touchdown-challenged games as the SU starter.

He's spent almost one-fifth of his life waiting on the sidelines of various college football fields.

But he is able to stay the course through a blend of competitiveness and tolerance. Each day he tries to beat out Hunt for the starting job, yet every night does not end with self-doubt or degradation.

Instead he remains remarkably even-keeled, his personality molded and his edges softened by time spent with Collins. Real life versus football.

"Communicating with him is a challenge," Allen said. "Being patient there is something that takes time to learn and not get frustrated. Everyday things that are normal for you and me are difficult for him. Just being patient in those little things, little interactions with him every day have made me into a better person.

"It carries over to a lot of parts of my life, and football is one of them."

***

Ten throws.

Ten throws are the difference between Drew Allen and Terrel Hunt at this point in the season, the difference between the first and second spot on Scott Shafer's depth chart, in the eyes of quarterbacks coach Tim Lester. If you erase 10 poor choices by Allen — interceptions, misreads, forced passes — he is likely still the man under center on Saturday against N.C. State.

"The rest? The rest were pretty good," Lester said. "You can never predict how it's going to go down, but he did exactly what we thought he would as far as his arm."

But because of those 10 throws, and more specifically where those 10 throws ended up, Allen will play second fiddle to Hunt against another team that wanted him to be a starting quarterback. It's the easiest point in the season for Allen to ponder what-if questions, but he insists that's not in his mental makeup.

He equates his decision to come to Syracuse to his decision to transfer at Oklahoma. He never considered leaving Norman, Okla., until he absolutely had to following the conclusion of his senior season. And in a parallel situation here at Syracuse, Allen says he never thought about leaving just because Hunt reclaimed the job he held at the end of the spring.

"My whole college career I've never had regrets," Allen said. "I make a decision and I live with it. Once I made my decision to come to Syracuse, I stuck with it. I was devoted and committed to coming to Syracuse and doing the best that I can.

"I still am."

So on Saturday at Carter-Finley Stadium, Allen will stand on the sidelines and wait. If Hunt gets hurt or plays exceptionally poorly, Allen will trot onto the field and face the team he could have been a part of.

But up in the stands will be Collins, a brother and friend who cares less about how much Allen plays and more about the pure joy that comes from being in No. 8's presence. And in the end, that's more important than touchdowns or interceptions.

"I wouldn't change him for anything in the world because he's amazing," Allen said. "He's cool as hell."